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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

From Atoms to Wheels: The Role of Multi-Scale Modeling in the Future of Transportation Electrification

Traditionally, prototype hardware is built for validation testing to ensure battery systems design changes meet vehicle-level requirements, which is expensive both in cost and time. Virtual engineering (VE) of battery systems for electric vehicle (EV) propulsion offers a reduced-cost alternative to the traditional development process and uses multi-scale modeling to virtually probe the impact of design changes in a particular part on the overall performance of the system. This allows for rapid iteration over multiple design spaces, without committing to build hardware. This perspective article discusses current trends in VE for EV applications and proposes improvements to accelerate EV adoption.

Garrick, Taylor R. (ORCID:0000000322518129)↗
DOE OSTI2023

Materials (FY 2022 Annual Progress Report)

This document summarizes the progress of VTO Materials R&D projects supported during the fiscal year 2022. The Propulsion Materials portfolio is closely aligned with other VTO subprograms to identify critical materials needs for next-generation high-efficiency powertrains for both heavy- and light-duty vehicles. The Lightweight Materials portfolio works closely with industry through the U.S. DRIVE Partnership to understand light-duty vehicle structural weight-reduction goals and identify technical challenges that prevent the deployment of lightweight materials.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Communications Reliability for Vehicle Grid Integration

Electric Vehicles (EVs) adoption rate has been steadily increasing in the US leading to a growing number of charging stations including faster DC (Direct Current) chargers and slower Level 1 and Level 2 AC (Alternating Current) chargers. This increase in demand for electricity is further exacerbated by recent developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, advanced manufacturing, and digitization. These factors will require electric utilities to upgrade their infrastructure to keep up with the increasing electrical demand (especially during peak hours). An easy way to counteract the need for these upgrades is to shift a major chunk of active charge sessions (durations where there is energy transfer from charger to EV's propulsion battery) to off-peak hours thereby flattening the load curve and making the infrastructure more resilient. This concept is known as Smart Charge Management (SCM). EV owners also benefit from SCM since it lowers their charging costs and consequently their transportation costs by prioritizing charging during off-peak hours. SCM takes advantage of EV's capability to act as a controllable load or DER (Distributed Energy Resource). This report summarizes the reliability analysis performed on the communication required for two of these SCM use-cases. This analysis only focuses on SCM strategies for unidirectional charging (energy transfer from EVSE to EV or V1G) and not bidirectional charging.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Public EV Charging Station Site Selection Checklist

The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (Joint Office) provides technical assistance on planning and implementation of a national network of electric vehicle (EV) chargers and zero-emission fueling infrastructure, as well as zero-emission transit and school buses. There are several considerations that should be addressed when selecting a site for EV charging stations. The following is a checklist to assist with site selection for publicly available EV charging stations.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Operations and Maintenance for Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure in Indian Country

This fact sheet provides an overview of operations and maintenance (O&M) costs, responsibilities, and contracts to help ensure EV charging infrastructure remains functional and reliable in Indian Country. O&M planning is important for Tribes to consider at the beginning of EV charging infrastructure projects to help ensure charger uptime and longevity.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Electric vehicle supply equipment location and capacity allocation for fixed-route networks

Electric vehicle (EV) supply equipment location and allocation (EVSELCA) problems for freight vehicles are becoming more important because of the trending electrification shift. Some previous works address EV charger location and vehicle routing problems simultaneously by generating vehicle routes from scratch. Although such routes can be efficient, introducing new routes may violate practical constraints, such as drive schedules, and satisfying electrification requirements can require dramatically altering existing routes. To address the challenges in the prevailing adoption scheme, we approach the problem from a fixed -route perspective. We develop a mixed -integer linear program, a clustering approach, and a metaheuristic solution method using a genetic algorithm (GA) to solve the EVSELCA problem. The clustering approach simplifies the problem by grouping customers into clusters, while the GA generates solutions that are shown to be nearly optimal for small problem cases. A case study examines how charger costs, energy costs, the value of time (VOT), and battery capacity impact the cost of the EVSELCA. Charger equipment costs were found to be the most significant component in the objective function, leading to a substantial reduction in cost when decreased. VOT costs exhibited a significant decrease with rising energy costs. Further, an increase in VOT resulted in a notable rise in the number of fast chargers. Longer EV ranges decrease total costs up to a certain point, beyond which the decrease in total costs is negligible.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Strategic Pathways for Indigenous Resilient and Innovative Transportation

This presentation details the results of the project, titled Strategic Pathways for Indigenous Resilient and Innovative Transportation. The project culminated in a guidebook for Tribes interested in pursuing public EV charging infrastructure. The guidebook is designed to serve Tribal planners, Tribal departments of transportation, environmental offices, Tribal enterprises, Tribal utility authorities, Tribal leadership, and any other interested parties. The conference presentation will provide details on the engagement conducted during the project to inform the project publications. The presentation will also discuss Tribal sovereignty-related considerations for EV charging infrastructure topics including O&M and working with the electric utility.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Decarbonizing all-electric communities via carbon-responsive control of behind-the-meter resources

The progression of electrification in the building and transportation sectors brings new opportunities for energy decarbonization. With higher dependence on the grid power supply, the variation of the grid carbon emission intensity can be utilized to reduce the carbon emissions from the two sectors. Existing coordinated control methods for buildings with distributed energy resources (DERs) either consider electricity price or renewable energy generation as the input signal, or adopt optimization in the decision-making, which is difficult to implement in the real-world environment. This paper aims to propose and validate an easy-to-deploy rule-based carbon responsive control framework that facilitates coordination between all-electric buildings and electric vehicles (EVs). The signals of the grid carbon emission intensity and the local photovoltaics (PV) generation are used for shifting the controllable loads. Extensive simulations were conducted using a model of an all-electric mixed-use community in a cold climate to validate the control performance with metrics such as emissions, energy consumption, peak demand, and EV end-of-day state-of-charge (SOC). Our study identifies that 4.5% to 27.1% of annual emission reduction can be achieved with limited impact on energy costs, peak demand, and thermal comfort. Additionally, up to 32.7% of EV emission reduction can be obtained if the EV owners reduce the target SOC by less than 21.2%.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Managing Workplace Charging: Argonne National Laboratory’s Reservation-Based Smart EV Charging Platform

The Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) partnered with Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) to produce a case study on Argonne’s workplace electric vehicle (EV) charging program, designed to optimize employees’ ability to reserve EV chargers and allow Argonne to implement a workplace managed charging solution. Formally known as EVrez, the program offers Argonne’s employees access to more than 50 Level 2 chargers and 4 DC fast chargers (DCFC). Employees must reserve and manage their EV sessions through the EVrez mobile app platform. This report outlines the EVrez program, from inception to maturity, highlighting key learnings and best practices from the Argonne team. As other workplaces seek to offer their own workplace charging offerings, this report highlights foundational steps and considerations.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2026

Analyzing SCM Grid Benefits from Electric Transportation [Slides]

Increasing adoption of EVs and expanding unmanaged charging loads could increase the cost of transportation energy due to increasing load variability and shrinking infrastructure capacity. The actual cost of transportation energy, such as charging an EV, depends on several factors including energy costs, charging infrastructure costs, and applicable grid upgrades. Based on studies from past DOE projects; RECHARGE, DirectXFC, FUSE and 21st Century Truck Partnership (21CTP) the EV-CENTS project will develop a transportation energy cost metric to better quantify these factors and provide a framework for assessing the value potential of new technology solutions, such as smart charge management (SCM), which could reduce these costs for all stakeholders. The initial assessment will focus on the cost of charging, which will vary across vehicle classes such as light-duty vehicles (LDV) or medium and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDV), as well as across different vocations resulting in many different use cases for this metric. Cost of charging results will be developed for each use case in both uncontrolled and controlled scenarios to understand the value potential of different SCM objective functions and their ability to optimize the cost of energy and delay or eliminate the need for electrical upgrades.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Electrifying education: Exploring the electrification potential of U.S. School bus fleets

We analyze the operations of 270 diesel school buses across the United States to assess their electrification potential and evaluate the impact of various charging strategies on electricity demand. We find that school buses typically follow a two-route schedule on weekdays, featuring extended dwell times between morning and evening trips. Weekday trip distances average 25 miles, while weekend trips average 42 miles. Charging simulations indicate over 90% of the U.S. school bus fleet could be electrified using current technologies (300-mile range at 1.21 kWh/mile with 19.2-kW depot charging) without modifying existing operating patterns. Depot charging is a key enabler of school bus electrification, however, the strategic placement of charging stations at other locations (e.g., schools) can further increase electrification potential. Additionally, we find electric school bus charging to be highly flexible, with charge management capable of reducing peak charging loads at depots by up to 77%.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Electrification (2023 Annual Progress Report)

This document summarizes the progress of VTO Electrification R&D projects supported during the fiscal year 2023. The Electric Drive Technologies (EDT) program’s mission is to conduct early-stage research and development on transportation electrification technologies that accelerate the development of cost-effective and compact electric traction drive systems that meet or exceed performance and reliability requirements of internal combustion engine (ICE)-based vehicles, thereby enabling electrification across all light-duty vehicle types. The Grid and Charging Infrastructure (G&I) program's mission is to conduct early-stage research and development on transportation electrification technologies that enable reduced petroleum consumption by light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles. The program identifies and enables the role of vehicles in the future electrical grid.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program (ANNUAL REPORT | PLAN YEAR 2023–2024)

The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), invests $\$$7.5 billion to build out a national electric vehicle (EV) charging network and created the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (Joint Office) to “study, plan, coordinate, and implement issues of joint concern between the two agencies.” The BIL represents a historic effort to electrify the U.S. transportation system, which has significant potential to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and help tackle the climate crisis. The U.S. transportation sector accounts for one-third of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions—the largest share of all primary sectors, including electricity production, industry, commercial and residential, and agriculture. The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, one of the BIL funding programs, was launched in February 2022, providing nearly $\$$5 billion over 5 years to help states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico (hereafter referred to as “states”) create a network of EV charging stations beginning with designated Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Alternative Fuel Corridors (AFCs), with an emphasis on the Interstate Highway System. The funding is made available to the states in allocations each year pending FHWA certification of the state’s annual deployment plan. The NEVI program is in its third year, so there's a lot to celebrate. As of July 2024, 39 states have released solicitations for their NEVI programs and eight states have opened their first NEVI-funded stations (61 ports in total), which have already powered thousands of charging sessions for EV drivers across America. Additional stations are in the pipeline with more than 2,500 additional ports having been awarded or conditionally awarded by the states. All states released their Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 deployment plan updates to reflect the new minimum requirements and guidance, and several states added newly designated EV AFCs in their FY 2024 deployment plan updates, bringing the total AFC network of EV corridors to more than 81,000 miles.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Getting Electric Vehicle Ready in Indian Country

As electric vehicles (EV) become more common, Tribes can guide how charging infrastructure is planned, approved, and built on Tribal lands. Tribes can prepare for future infrastructure projects by updating codes, zoning, parking rules, and permitting process, as well as improving electrical infrastructure and broadband access.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗